Review | Make It Count by Megan Erickson

Make It Count by Megan Erickson
Series: Bowler University #1
Published By: William Morrow Impulse
Published On: June 3, 2014
Genre: New Adult/Contemporary
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★½

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Kat Caruso wishes her brain had a return policy, or at least a complaint hot-line. The defective organ is constantly distracted, terrible at statistics, and absolutely flooded with inappropriate thoughts about her boyfriend’s gorgeous best friend, Alec…who just so happens to be her brand new math tutor. Who knew nerd was so hot? 
Kat usually goes through tutors like she does boyfriends—both always seem to bail when they realize how hopeless she is. It’s safer for her heart to keep everyone at arm’s reach. But Alec is always stepping just a little too close. 
Alec Stone should not be fantasizing about Kat. She’s adorable, unbelievably witty, and completely off limits. He’d never stab his best friend in the back… 
But when secrets are revealed, the lines of loyalty are blurred. To make it count, Alec must learn messy human emotions can’t be solved like a trigonometry function. And Kat has to trust Alec may be the first guy to want her for who she is, and not in spite of it.

Kat has always struggled with school, specifically math, and can’t seem to get a tutor to stick with her. Luckily for Kat, she finds one tutor who is willing to work hard to get her the grades she needs; her boyfriend’s best friend, Max. However, when Kat finds herself thinking more about her tutor than the math work, things start to get complicated.

I wanted to like this but it was a bit of a disappointment. I was looking forward to a fun, light-hearted story about characters my age that I could really relate to, and that is exactly what I got. Unfortunately, though, it just wasn’t enough for me and I ended up having a few issues with the book that made it a little disappointing.

The plot became a bit boring and repetitive. It started off great, and I was really enjoying it, until it all just became too familiar. I felt, at some parts, as though I was re-reading parts of the story I had already read. The characters had the same arguments and issues over and over again, making for a repetitive, and eventually slightly boring, read. It could have been a really great plot, but it felt as though scenarios were repeated just to fill up the pages.

One of the redeeming qualities of this book was the really great characters. I really liked Kat as a main character. She was quirky and funny, a very different character than I am used to reading about. She is definitely not your typical main character but she was really fun to read about. I also really liked Alec, mainly because I can’t resist a super sweet but kind of sexy nerdy guy. He was an adorable love interest, for the most part. The characters definitely made the book more enjoyable for me.

While I didn’t love this book, there were some funny moments throughout. Kat’s wit and quirky personality, combined with some of the interesting situations throughout the book, resulted in some amusing moments. Again, these funny moments were mainly due to the great characters and their witty, unique personalities.

I didn’t think this was a bad book but there was nothing special about it. Yes, the characters were very good, but there was nothing really great about this book. There was nothing to make it any different from the norm or stand out among some really great new adult books. The fact that this could really be any book with the ‘girl falls for boy she shouldn’t’ storyline, without anything particularly different, was probably the most disappointing thing for me.

One thing that surprised me when reading this was the fact that the cheating aspect did not annoy me. I often find cheating within books to be uncomfortable to read about and it can make me dislike characters. However, I think as it was made clear that the cheating aspect was the premise of the story, I didn’t have an issue with it. It is also very much down to Megan Erickson’s writing that I did not find it an uncomfortable topic to read about.

Overall. I didn’t love this books but it was a very quick, reasonably fun read. The plot may not have been anything unique or special, but Megan Erickson definitely knows how to write some good characters. The characters were the most redeeming thing about this book, in my opinion. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it much at all if it weren’t for the quirky, unique and enjoyable characters.